Rich(ard) Dawson + Special Guests

About

Rich(ard) Dawson returns with news of his latest record End of the Middle. While Dawson is no stranger to big musical ideas, be it opening his 2022 album The Ruby Cord with a world-building 41-minute track or writing epic songs from the perspective of a seed in collaboration with the Finnish experimental rock band Circle, here Dawson dials everything down. “Everything is held back and soft.” By stripping things to a bare bones essence, what is revealed is a remarkably poised, oddly elegant and beautiful collection of songs.

The title, End of the Middle, is a suitably slippery contradiction, one that invites multiple interpretations: Middle-aging? Middle-class? The middle-point of Dawson's career? The centre of a record? Centrism in general? Polarisation? The possibility of having a balanced discussion about anything? Stuck in the middle with you? Middle England?

End of the Middle is richly intricate, evocative, tactile and almost has the transportive ability to put you in the places and scenarios it describes. Partly inspired by his love of the films of Japanese director Yasujirō Ozu, the album focuses around a family unit. “It zooms in quite close-up to try and explore a typical middle class English family home,” Dawson says. “We're listening to the stories of people from three or four generations of perhaps the same family. But really, it’s about how we break certain cycles. I think the family is a useful metaphor to examine how things are passed on generationally.”

Presented by Melting Vinyl.

Under 16s to be accompanied by an adult